I love it when the bloggers participating in Passports with Purpose (PwP), the annual travelblogger’s fundraiser, make the cause personal. I love it when they tie their experiences, either out in the world or at home, to what we’re doing and why we’re doing it. I’m of the “All politics are personal” school of thought and it’s hard to imagine something a lot more personal to a bunch of writers than the effect reading has had on them.
I’ve pulled from just a few of the nearly 100 posts about this year’s PwP fundraiser — if you’re curious about WHY we do this and why we like this year’s cause — Room to Read — than these posts are a good place to learn more.
I have 30 books in one arm and my two-year-old daughter, who is wearing her princess frog pajamas, in the other.
This is our morning routine. We get up. We read. She’ll “read” to herself and then she’ll have Annie or myself read to her. She must read 40 books a day.
In Zambia 46% of women will never learn to read or write. — Kelsey Timmerman
“All they wanted to do was read,” Angela told me on that Fijian island. “I wished I could have given them a library’s worth of books.”
A light went off in my head; this is exactly what I was about to help do with PWP, except we’re giving Zambian children two libraries worth of books. — Celeste Brash
Sometimes I get exasperated by the stacks of books that tumble across the kitchen counter or the floor of their room, but my typical response is not to put them away but to simply stack them more neatly because I know that immersion in reading is what fuels Teddy’s passion for undersea life and Tommy’s love of baseball.
Sure food and water and healthcare are all essential for kids. But I would argue that feeding their brains is equally important. — Mara Gorman
I couldn’t imagine my life without books. I learned to read very early and since I was a child books have been faithful companions. They made me dream, they made me think, they made me cry and they made me laugh.
Books fed my imagination, they gave me the taste for discovering and they boosted my love for traveling.–Simon Falvo
When I try to imagine a world without books, it’s just too hard. My whole world revolves around the written word, it always has. When I was a child, I ran home from school to read books. —Holly Rosen Fink
If you need more reasons to give to this year’s Passports with Purpose (beyond, of course, the freaking fabulous prizes), then take a minute or two to consider what your ability to read means to you. Then, go here and help us reach our goal, to fund two libraries in Zambia.
It’s such an honor to be mentioned in your post and to be a part of this phenomenal campaign.